£5k fine for landlord who put tenants at ‘imminent risk of serious injury’

£5k fine for landlord who put tenants at ‘imminent risk of serious injury’

Non-functioning fire detection system

A landlord has been fined £5,000 for putting his tenants ‘at imminent risk of serious injury from fire’, reports the Worthing Herald.

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (WSFRS) were called to a property in Worthing owned by Mr Gary Mobsby, after a concerned tenant contacted them about a non-functioning fire detection system.

A spokesperson from the council said that residents of the seven flats in the building were at imminent risk of serious injury from fire and that ‘emergency remedial action’ was carried out and the faulty fire detection system was replaced.

Further inspection of the property found that the doors to the flats did not provide adequate fire and smoke protection.

It was also found the work carried out by Mr Mobsby to create self-contained flats was found to be substandard, not to building regulation standards and did not provide adequate fire protection, the spokesperson said. Mr Mobsby pleaded guilty to seven offences and was ordered to pay £5,018 (including costs).

Bruce Reynolds, Adur and Worthing councils private sector housing manager, said: “Our investigations uncovered a history of poor maintenance of the fire detection system and of the structure of the building as a whole.

“If there had been a fire, tenants would have been unaware of it until it was too late. Due to the seriousness of the conditions we found, prosecution was the only option,” he added.